Vietnamese New Year Rice Cakes: Iconic Festive Dishes and Contested National Identity

Avieli, Nir

doi:10.2307/3773995

Cited by 41 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…Yet, as Nir Avieli well notes, the production of the dish-including the anxiety over the rice harvest, gendered labor investment, and regional modifications-ground it in lived daily life. Bánh Tết thus is both the imagined taste of the nation and its gustative constituent parts (Avieli 2005).…”

Section: Sutton Notesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cooking up the Culinary Nation or Savoring its Regions? Teaching Food Studies in Vietnam

Annear

Harris

2018

ASIANetwork Exchange: A Journal for Asian Studies in the Liberal Arts

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"In food, as in death, we feel the essential brotherhood of man."Vietnamese ProverbThis paper explores whether or not there is an identifiably Vietnamese national cuisine, one in which the ingredients, recipes, and/or dishes socially, culturally, and politically unite Vietnamese people. It contends that Vietnam, with its long history of foreign invaders, its own appropriation of the middle and southern regions, and its varied regional geographies, provides a critical example for Food Studies of the need to interrogate the idea of a national cuisine and to differentiate it from regional and local cuisines. The paper examines how cookbook authors and cooking schools have more generally sought to represent Vietnamese dishes as national, but that there is a strong argument against the claim of a Vietnamese national cuisine. We advocate a Food Studies methodology that creates an effective pedagogy that explores whether or not national populations are unified as single gastro-states or atomized by a plurality of regional cuisines. Through experiential assignments and student work we illustrate how Food Studies presents the pedagogical opportunity for students to study and learn at the intersection of national politics and the everyday lives of people, providing a framework for understanding connections of labor, gender, class, and, essentially, taste, among many other values. In the case of Vietnamese food, the critical details of ingredients, preparation, and consumption both reveal and conceal truths about the Vietnamese people.Keywords: Food Studies; Vietnam; pedagogy; cuisine; cookbooks In what follows, we put forth the hypothesis that Vietnam, with its long history of foreign invaders, its own appropriation of the middle and southern regions, and its varied regional geographies, provides a critical example for Food Studies of the need to interrogate the idea of a national cuisine and to differentiate it from regional and local cuisines. We look at how cookbook authors and cooking schools seek to of Minh Mạng's prescribed cuisine presupposed wet-rice agriculture, and outlawed the "barbarian habits" of members of ethnic minorities (i.e., anyone other than Kinh).These "proper" foods were to be consumed socially around a tray of share food, but Vietnam has a long legacy of colonialism and conflict with China, France, and the United States, and of conflict in its relations with Cambodia in the south. Even as the Vietnamese have resisted these incursions by outsiders, and sought to destroy internal enemies, they have also absorbed elements from all of these cultures, often adopting language, social norms, and culinary products.

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Section: Sutton Notesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cooking up the Culinary Nation or Savoring its Regions? Teaching Food Studies in Vietnam

Annear

Harris

2018

ASIANetwork Exchange: A Journal for Asian Studies in the Liberal Arts

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“…Food and drink are associated with identity (Laroche et al, 2005;Avieli, 2005) are not only as cultural artifacts but also as elements of universal human existence. We have to eat to live, and by eating and drinking are involved in activities imbued with cultural meanings.…”

Section: Why Food and Drink Mattermentioning

confidence: 99%

“…"Set groups apart" Food and drink, may, however, not inevitably lead to social integration Differences in food habits may also delineate boundaries between "us" and "them". Dimensions of ethnic identity are often closely related to the consumption of traditional foods (Laroche et al 2005), consumption of particular foods and associated rituals serve as a means of "concretizing" and practicing national identity (Avieli 2005 "…people are enculturated to eat just about anything…as well as to claim that whatever they eat is the best or only good food for real human beings" (Mintz 1996).…”

Section: What Role Does Food and Drink Play In The Social Integrationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cultural difference on the table

Means

Davey

Dewe

2015

Int'l Jnl of Cross Cultural Management

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Multicultural work teams are increasingly common and provide a challenge to achieving the integration associated with greater effectiveness. The vague and abstract nature of many definitions of culture can make the difficulties in acknowledging and addressing difference challenging. This longitudinal study of a multicultural team follows the anthropological roots of cultural studies to focus on the material role of food and drink in team development. In an empirical, ethnographically-oriented study of a culturally diverse work team over time, we explored the ways that food and drink acted as boundary objects in processes of integration, differentiation and cultural adaptation and negotiation. By employing the lens of material culture, with its sensory nature and its associations with identity, we highlight the complexity of cross-cultural interaction, with its possibilities of cooperation, learning, difficulties and resistance. Our study shows that food and drink allow team members a grounded discussion of culture, accommodation and difference. We contribute to the multicultural team literature, emphasizing the roles of materiality, constrained choice, and complexity, translated into performance by the generative mechanisms of agency in context. We also identify specific contributions to practice arising from this research.

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“…Identity formations are even critical in multiracial and multicultural nations, and many countries are still struggling in developing their identity and social integration (Alba et al, 2000). These can be seen in a well-established nation such as America and European Nation (EU) (DeSoucey, 2010;Shane, 1994) as well as the country that had been influenced by colonization and migration such as Taiwan and Vietnam (Avieli, 2005;Hui-Tun, 2009.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Determinants of Food Heritage towards Food Identity

Ramli¹,

Zahari²,

Suhaimi³

et al. 2016

E-BPJ

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Many studies on traditional food and food products towards identity have been carried out, but there is insufficient study relating to heritage context. In exploring this issue, conceptual frameworks have developed and examined the relationship between the determinants of food heritage and food identity. A total of 898 self-administered questionnaires were collected from the public in Klang Valley area, Malaysia and using statistical analysis using partial least square-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) from PLS 3 software to established the validity and reliability of the model as well as the relationship between the two factors. Results revealed that there are eight construct determinants of food heritage and one construct of food identity that represent the conceptual model, and there is a moderate relationship between the two variables.

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Vietnamese New Year Rice Cakes: Iconic Festive Dishes and Contested National Identity

Cited by 41 publications

References 16 publications

Cooking up the Culinary Nation or Savoring its Regions? Teaching Food Studies in Vietnam

Cooking up the Culinary Nation or Savoring its Regions? Teaching Food Studies in Vietnam

Cultural difference on the table

Determinants of Food Heritage towards Food Identity

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